This invention relates to a segregation method utilizing chlorination in the presence of a solid reductant at elevated temperature to effect beneficiation of an oxidized iron ore, and to the novel product obtained by the practice of the invention.
The invention finds application with respect to hard-to-beneficiate iron oxide ores in which the iron minerals are finely dispersed in the gangue minerals. The Clear Hills ore of Northwestern Alberta is a case in point. This ore typically contains: 31.87% Fe, 17.70% SiO.sub.2, 5.14% Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 1.49% P.sub.2 O.sub.5, 0.03% S and has 25.0% loss on ignition. When this ore is directly reduced in a rotary kiln or fluid bed, the metallized iron concentrate obtained by magnetic separation is of poor quality and extensive grinding and numerous magnetic separation steps are required to yield the concentrate. The main reason for this poor quality if the iron concentrate is inherent in the nature of the ore. The iron- and gangue-bearing minerals are extremely fine, complex and intimately inter-dispersed. When the ore is reduced as is, with either gas or solid reductants, the metallic iron is generated in situ in the ore particles and forms in very fine-grained crystals that do not enlarge and thus require extremely fine grinding of the reduced ore to liberate them from the gangue constituent.